Dell, Bloomberg Discuss a Changing Business World

There are challenges, but they're challenges businesses should want to embrace given the benefits that companies, their employees and their customers can gain in a world of faster services, greater mobility and more information, said Edima Elinewinga, executive director of IT for the United Nations Foundation.
"Almost everything is disruptive right now—cloud, IoT [Internet of things], BYOD," Elinewinga said. "But they're all good disruptions."
Both Michael Dell and Michael Bloomberg echoed those sentiments. They were interviewed onstage by Vonnie Quinn, an anchor with Bloomberg Television, whose questions touched on everything from the future of the tech industry and how they planned to grow their companies, to the debt businesses should carry and how firms can attract and retain talented employees.
Michael Dell said that technology is driving the rapid changes in the global society and that it isn't difficult to envision where the next trillion dollars will come from for the $3.5 trillion industry, given the growth of connected devices and data generation. There are 8 billion connected devices today, he said, "and we can see very clearly how we'll get to 50 billion devices."

"The relevancy of IT in today's society has never been greater, and the impact on the world can't be overstated," he said.

Michael Bloomberg, who returned to run his business in 2013 after leaving the mayoral office, several times said that business leaders need to take a pragmatic approach as they steer their companies. Understand what's happening in their industries, do what you do well and be agile enough to adapt quickly to changing demands, and don't worry about chasing every rival and startup or about trying to be the best at everything.
"As businesses change, what's in your customer's interest is where you want to be," he said.